Enlarge / Axanar Productions is arguing that its Prelude to Axanar doesn’t infringe copyright because it’s filmed in “mockumentary” style. (credit: Prelude to Axanar)

In a motion filed last week, CBS and Paramount asked a judge to rule that (PDF) fan-funded Axanar Productions infringed Star Trek copyright. A day later, the small production company filed its own motion (PDF) claiming that its only existing 20-minute film, called Prelude to Axanar, was shot in a “mockumentary” style, unlike a true Star Trek TV show or movie, and that Axanar Production’s output was always intended to be non-commercial.

The company also contended that CBS and Paramount don’t own “the idea of Star Trek or the Star Trek universe as a whole.”

CBS and Paramount allege that Axanar’s work copies from the “plots, themes, settings, mood, dialogue, characters, and pace,” of Star Trek works and that, by raising nearly $1.5 million on Kickstarter, the production studio didn’t operate non-commercially.